Tag: past news

Love comics? Come along to ComicFest 2017, Saturday May the 6th at the Central library.

Comics go to school

Sponsored by The Ministry of Education

Over the course of its hundred-year history, the School Journal has included work from New Zealand’s greatest authors and illustrators. In recent times, this has included comics from the likes of Dylan Horrocks, Ant Sang, and Andrew Burdan. Visit the Central Library to view a few highlights, new and old, in the lead up to ComicFest.

Comic drawing competition

On Free Comic Book Day, come to the library and draw a comic story using just 4 panels and you could win an armful of comics! Feel free to come to Sarah Laing’s character creation workshop on Saturday morning for inspiration. Entry forms available from Central Library on the day. All ages and drawing levels welcome.

9.30am onwards | Free Comic Book Day

Sponsored by GRAPHIC comics

Grab some free comics from us and chat comics with our librarians at the Central Library!

Comics from all different publishers and for all age ranges are included in the selections, so there will be something for everyone. Thanks to Graphic for providing us with all the awesome free comics!

10am–11.00 | Workshop: Comics character development workshop with Sarah Laing

Mezzanine Meeting Room, Central Library

Sponsored by Wellington City Libraries

Who’s going to star in your comic? A superhero, a cybernaut, a talking sausage or a kid like you? Come to this comics workshop and we’ll work on your character, from its backstory to the way it’s drawn. Bring your own pens and pencils, and we’ll have mountains of paper. Work on different expressions and poses, experimenting with line weight and form. We’ll put them in some tricky situations to see how their story plays out in panels. All drawing levels welcome!

10.30am–11.30am | National Library: From where we started: Reading New Zealand’s comic history

Session held at the Alexander Turnbull Library to enable access to heritage collections

Sponsored by Alexander Turnbull library

The Alexander Turnbull Library collects New Zealand’s documentary heritage and is home to a comic treasure trove. From early newspaper strips and children’s annuals, through to contemporary graphic novels and zines, the Library offers a window into this unique and fascinating part of our history.

Join research librarian Hannah Benbow for a hands on look at almost a century of New Zealand comics.

11am-12noon | Thunderbirds Are Go: Re-imagining the much loved brand for a new audience

Young Adult Ground Floor Area

Sponsored by Pukeko Pictures

Ben Milsom, Production Designer and Episodic Director for Thunderbirds Are Go takes you through the process of re-imagining the 1960’s classic for a new generation. Ben will guide you through the unique production process of this multi-media (CGI animation with live action miniature sets) series paying tribute to the legacy of model locations from the classic series.

Ben will showcase the inspiration taken from the original series and discuss how Thunderbirds Are Go was brought to life in animation, toys and comics through slides and video and present an opportunity to have your questions answered with a Q&A section. All attendees of this presentation go in to a draw to win a family pass to the Miniatures Stage Tour: Thunderbirds Are Go from Weta Studio Tours.

Both Dylan Horrocks and Sarah Laing have authored popularly received and well regarded long form graphic novels including recent publications ‘Mansfield and Me,’ and ‘Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen.’
This informal, personal conversation will highlight the creative process involved in making a graphic novel, but also examine publishing, the graphic novel format and comics in New Zealand.

1pm–1.30 | Cosplay competition

Sponsored by Unity books

Dress up as your favourite character for a shot at a comic prize! There are prizes for all categories, including children, teens and adults.

1.30pm–2.30pm | Panel: A Wellington view – Local Cartoonists

Young Adult Ground Floor Area

What’s it like to be making comics in NZ? Join us for a discussion between local Wellington comic artists Jem Yoshioka, Giselle Clarkson and Sally Bollinger about their unique experiences making comics about life, nature, tradition, culture, and doing all this from Wellington.
Moderated by Robyn Kenealy.

2.30pm–3.30pm | Workshop: Taking your comics to the next level, with Dylan Horrocks

Mezzanine Meeting Room, Central Library

Sponsored by NZ Book Council

Gather up your comics (or that graphic novel plan) and bring them along to the Central library for a sit-down chat with Dylan. This is a chance to examine your ideas and process, to share ideas and techniques and to take things to the next level. Limited to 10 participants. Email at enquiries@wcl.govt.nz to book your place.

3.30pm–4.30pm | Panel: Should we all be writing political comics?

Young Adult Ground Floor area

Sponsored by Alexander Turnbull library

In spite of their subject matter, artistic responses to Trump and the current political climate have been witty, elegant, colourful and empowering. Join a group of panellists including Sam Orchard and Grant Buist to discuss how they have responded to recent events in their work, and the ongoing power of comics to satirise and protest. Panel discussion moderated by Hannah Benbow.

All events are free and unless stated open to participants of all ages.

It’s that easy. From 1st December – 31st January, kids can pick up a Summer Reading Challenge booklet from your local library (or print it here) and see how many they can read. If they write a Kids’ Club review for every book read from the list, they will be published on the Kids Blog.

Writing more reviews earns prizes, which can be collected from the local library: the first prize is earned after writing 2 reviews, and then after every 5th review from then on (a librarian will contact your child when the prize is ready to be collected). But the winning doesn’t stop there… there is also the Challenge’s main prize draw, which will be drawn in early February. The prize will include lots of goodies like books, CDs, vouchers, chocolate, library bags, toys and games, posters, stickers, and much more! To find out more about the Summer Reading Club, and the activities at each library, see the Kids Blog.

A warm seasons greetings to all our library borrowers and visitors with best wishes for a happy holiday season. Here are the opening hours across all our libraries from Saturday 24 December 2016 to Wednesday 4 January 2017. Click on the table for a larger view or follow this link. Please note all our libraries will be closed the statutory public holidays from 25-27 December and also 1-3 January. Brooklyn, Khandallah and Wadestown libraries will also be closed 24 and 31 December. Our libraries resume regular opening hours on Wednesday 4 January. Of course our eLibrary isn’t going on holiday: we have eBooks, eMagazines & eAudio to keep you entertained, along with daily newspapers & eMagazines in PressReader. Happy holidays everyone!

UPDATE: We are happy to announce that we will now be hosting this event at Central Library on FRIDAY 9th DECEMBER at 1PM. Thank you for your patience!

For all of us who are curious about the process of writing and want to know more about what comes next for writers and sometimes takes many years before we can find those labours of love on our library shelves, we have invited author and 2017 Burns Fellow Craig Cliff together with Mākaro Press publisher and author Mary McCallum to join us at the Central Library. They will be discussing how the editing and publishing process works drawing on their own experiences.

Craig Cliff, author of A Man Melting: Short stories and The Mannequin Makers will be the Robert Burns Fellow at Otago University in 2017. He hopes to be as prolific as he was in 2008, when he set himself the goal of writing a million words in a year (and blogged about it at www.yearofamillionwords.blogspot.com). He only wrote 800,767 words in the end, some of which can be found in his short story collection, A Man Melting, which won Best First Book in the 2011 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. His novel, The Mannequin Makers (2013), has been translated into Romanian and will come out in the U.S. next year.

Mary McCallum is an author turned publisher. She started up Mākaro Press in Wellington over three years ago and has already published 50 titles, mainly poetry and fiction, and some non-fiction including memoirs. Six titles have already been shortlisted for major awards. Mary is also the author of the award-winning, The Blue (Penguin 2007), a children’s novel Dappled Annie and the Tigrish (Gecko 2014) and a chapbook of poetry The Tenderness of Light. Mary has reviewed books on National Radio for nearly 15 years, and has worked as a bookseller, creative writing tutor, broadcast journalist and TV presenter.

Our eBook and eAudio eBook service OverDrive has been updated to include new features, simplified usage and a brand new design.

You’ll still access WCL’s OverDrive website from the same address on your desktop and mobile device at wcl.overdrive.com. We’ll still provide the same eBook and eAudio content in familiar formats and downloading and streaming options you’re used to.

However, you should notice positive changes:

– browsing, subject headings and links to our ‘Kids’ and ‘Teens’ pages are now at the very top of the website

– searches now auto complete with suggested options

– sign in with your library card and use a simplified account area

– availability of eBook and eAudio titles is now clearly labelled

In addition to these changes, there are improvements to renewals, holds and recommendations to the library.

For more information on our new OverDrive website, go to our Help page here, or to watch a video summary of our new OverDrive features click here.

Come one, come all! Jump on your sleigh and slide down to your local library to get into the festive spirit at one of our special family Christmas Storytimes. These free events are lots of fun with games and activities, carols and festive stories. We would love to see you in your best Christmas costume, or cozy pyjamas.

Island Bay Library: 8 Dec, 6.30pm

Karori Library: 8 Dec, 6.30pm

Brooklyn Library: 12 Dec, 6.30pm

Cummings Park (Ngaio) Library: 12 Dec, 6.30pm

Wellington Central Library: 14 Dec, 6.30pm

Wadestown Library: 15 Dec, 6.30pm

Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie) Library: 15 Dec, 6.30pm

Mervyn Kemp (Tawa) Library: 15 Dec, 6.30pm

Johnsonville Library: 16 Dec, 6.30pm

Newtown Library: 16 Dec, 6.30pm

Miramar Library: 19 Dec, 6.30pm

Khandallah Library: 22 Dec, 6.30pm

Deck the halls! We look forward to seeing you there. (No need to book; just turn up)

Thousands of avid readers love the Central Library book sales. Judging by their past popularity, this bumper book sale should be no different. Past buyers have used the sale to find the best book deals, to complete their personal collections or just to rummage and find a gem. And the sale helps our libraries by making room for an ever increasing collection. The major highlight of this sale is that unlike the previous non-fiction sale, this sale has a wide variety of fiction (and non-fiction) books, DVDs and CDs for sale. As at each previous sale, stock is replenished at regular intervals – ensuring there are always fresh bargains to be found.

The book sale this time will be located in the Central Library Mezzanine Room. It opens 9.30am on Tuesday 29 November, ending 4pm on Sunday 4 December.

Thousands of avid readers love the Central Library book sales. Judging by their past popularity, this “extra special” non-fiction book sale should be no different. Past buyers have used the sale to find the best book deals to add to their personal collections or just to rummage and find a reference gem. And the sale helps our libraries by making room for an ever increasing collection. The major highlight of this sale is the concentration on a great range of non-fiction. As at each previous sale, stock is replenished at regular intervals – ensuring there are always fresh bargains to be found. And they really are bargains in this extra special sale – prices are $2 per book, including songbooks – though some of the latter are individually priced.

If you love a bargain, you won’t want to miss it. The book sale starts Tuesday 27 September at 9.30am, Central Library.